


Mistaken Identity

by Sky_King



Series: Quarantine Requests [1]
Category: Bleach, Fruits Basket
Genre: Family Feels, Found Family, Gen, Hints of Ichigure, Ichigo/Shigure, Kurosaki Ichigo big brother's the Sohmas, Kurosaki Ichigo gets confused as a dad, Kurosaki Ichigo learns how to transform into a cat, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Prompt Fic, Protective Kurosaki Ichigo, Quarantine Requests, Sohma Shigure has a bi panic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2020-03-22
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:34:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23239288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sky_King/pseuds/Sky_King
Summary: Maurey's Prompt:AU where Ichigo learns Yoruichi's animal transformation, and the furuba cast are confused and concerned and Kyou has a crisis.Ichigo learns how to transform into a cat, gets confused for a Sohma, meets the cursed family and maybe earns himself some kids and a boyfriend.
Relationships: Kurosaki Ichigo & Sohma Kyou, Kurosaki Ichigo & Sohma Shigure, hints of Kurosaki Ichigo/ Sohma Shigure
Series: Quarantine Requests [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1670878
Comments: 37
Kudos: 542





	Mistaken Identity

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Maurey](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maurey/gifts).



> Have an entire month off college, so why not try to distract people with a fic or two?
> 
> Requests are currently closed!!

You would think, that with Ichigo’s previous job as a substitute Shinigami, hiding and concealing his identity from friends, family and random strangers alike should come as second nature to him.

You would think, that being taught by Shihoin “Flash Step Goddess” Yoruichi would have made him nimbler, more aware of his surroundings even.

Ichigo would like to think he had learned something throughout the years as well.

He would also like to argue that this was just a freak incident, but honestly, with his amazing luck he should have known better.

As it was, he found himself in a lone alley of a neighboring city, staring up at the high school students that had somehow snuck up on him. While he was transforming. Into a cat.

They stared at each other with similar levels of panic. Three normal highschoolers and an orange cat big enough to be confused with a dog.

Making use of his ample years of experience in dealing with unexpected situations, Ichigo said,

“Um, nya?”

* * *

As an almost adult with a couple wars under his belt, Ichigo would like to think he had some level of maturity or perhaps enough experience to handle weird situations like this.

In his defense, there was nothing that could have possibly prepared him for having to lead three overly-curious teenagers away from such an open space while in his new cat form.

He cursed Yoruichi and her exhibitionism to hell and back, as he couldn’t even transform back without flaunting his birthday suit for everyone to see.

And _of course_ he couldn’t even transform back afterwards, because in his panic and their confusion nobody had remembered to pick up his clothes.

So you could say that at least his luck was just about the same as always.

“You’re a really pretty cat, mister.” The brunet girl, with doe-like eyes that reminded Ichigo of a younger Yuzu said as some sort of icebreaker. She was smiling softly at him, sitting neatly at the low table in the living room of a rather traditional-looking house.

“You’re… taking this with surprising calmness.” Ichigo commented, his voice soft and higher pitched than usual. Something he and Yoruichi had been working towards, actually, to further conceal his identity. Much good it did, if he was going to be caught transforming in the first place.

(Ichigo just knew Yoruichi was going to laugh herself to death when she found out. Her and Urahara, probably.)

The three teens shared a knowing glance, and Ichigo just _knew_ he had bumped into the most troublesome teens of this darned city.

What a surprise.

“…Are you a Sohma?” The mousey-haired teen asked, voice soft and modulated. He reminded him a little bit of Uryuu. If he had been fifty percent less prickly, and demurer. Actually scratch that, Uryuu would sooner die than look this soft. “…I mean, of course you are… but…”

Ichigo’s tail flickered, thumping hard against the table he was sitting on. Out of the corner of his eyes, he could see the third teen holding his breath, looking at him with a weird shine in his eyes. “A Sohma? Why would you ask that?”

“You-!” The third teen said, voice explosively loud even though he covered his mouth immediately after. He avoided their gazes, looking shy and nervous despite his fiery exterior. It was obvious at a glance his wild hair color was natural like Ichigo’s own. Hey, someone he could commiserate with. “You’re- I mean…”

Not-Yuzu (should he ask their names?) was looking between them with a growing sort of joy in her face, while Mousey seemed to share Ichigo’s confusion.

Orangey went from nervous to increasingly angry as a mad blush crept up his neck.

And then he tried attacking Ichigo.

He screamed as he aimed a downwards kick at him, which Ichigo easily avoided, neatly jumping off the table. And just in time too, as Orangey did not measure his strength and his heavy kick ended up snapping the table in half.

“I thought- _You said I was_ - _!”_ He screamed, lunging after him, missing by scant inches, time after time. He overreached and ended up falling flat on his face, but he just rolled to his knees and almost grabbed a confused Ichigo’s tail. “ _How- How dare you-!?”_

Confused and nervous, Ichigo looked at the other two for some sort of clue. Not-Yuzu looked teary eyed, as if watching some great melodrama unfolding before her eyes, while Mousey was just holding the bridge of his nose as if staving off a migraine.

Then he turned his attention to the teen, who had stopped lunging after him, chest heaving and his breath coming out in angry puffs and until then did his words register in his brain.

But he had no clue who this kid even was, so probably…

“Hey kid,” he said, fur bristling indignantly. “Name’s Kurosaki Ichigo. I’m not a Sohma, nor whoever it is you think I am. Can you stop trying to murder me?”

This did not have the expected effect.

Orangey’s eyes widened like saucers, jaw hanging slack as he stammered out a question that never fully formed. The splotchy red of his cheeks darkened in color, spreading over his entire face.

And then, before Ichigo’s very eyes, the lean teenager poofed out of existence.

Only to be replaced by a similar orange cat, like half the size of Ichigo himself.

There was silence.

“…Oh,” Ichigo began, voice soft. “Oh shit.”

* * *

In all of his rather short life, Ichigo had been mistaken for a delinquent and a slacker, labelled a ryouka, a nuisance and a hero. He’d been called a Strawberry, a kid, a menace.

But never.

Never had someone mistaken him for a _dad_.

“I’m just twenty-two.” Ichigo told Tohru, the Yuzu-look-alike. They were sitting out on the veranda overlooking their oversized garden, after Orangey had bristled in angry embarrassment and bolted out into the woods beyond.

“Well my mom was only eighteen when she had me,” Tohru supplied wholly unhelpful but with great cheer.

“Tohru, if I had had a kid at eighteen, he would be three years old. Not… What is he, fifteen?”

“Oh!” She said, hit by the sudden realization. “You’re right!”

Ichigo just sighed in despair. Then he looked back at the darkening horizon. “Hey, Tohru, do you know anything about his parents?”

“…Not really.” She replied, voice soft and sad. “Kyou-kun has lived alone for a very long time, so I always assumed they were both…”

Ichigo thought back about the fear and the childish anger he had seen on the young teen.

He thought about the words choking him in his anger, and he remembered his best friend. Sad and alone in a foreign world, he had turned to violence as his only way to cope.

Ichigo had had his sisters. Chad had had Ichigo.

He could tell Orangey –or rather, Kyou– wasn’t alone, not in the way either of them had ever been. But still, he couldn’t just leave him be when it had been his fault in the first place.

“I’m… I’m going to look for him.”

And without waiting for a reply, he sprinted towards the forest beyond.

* * *

“Found you.”

Kyou’s head jerked up, eyes widening in surprise or maybe even fear, as he noticed he was not alone. On one of the top branches of the tree he was taking refuge under, the strange cat-man lounged, smirking lazily at him.

Kyou’s fur bristled, his hind claws digging into the soil, as he prepared himself to bolt away, but before the message got from his brain to his body, the bigger cat jumped down in front of him. Despite being double his size, he was so quiet and furtive that Kyou would have probably missed him if he hadn’t spoken first.

“Oh sorry,” he said that in weird androgynous voice of his, “didn’t mean to scare you.”

Kyou wanted to deny that claim, but the angry embarrassment of before had firmly stuck his tongue to the roof of his mouth.

But the older cat, despite looking a strand of fur away from feral, just looked at him, something soft in his amber eyes. “I’m sorry I wasn’t who you were expecting, kid. Must suck balls.”

If there was one thing Kyou would never take lying down, however, was pity. He sneered, baring his teeth as he regained control over his mouth. “Whatever, what’s it to you?”

The bigger cat was still neither angry, nor particularly impressed though. “I mean, you were the one who attacked me, so you kinda made it my problem too.”

When the teen didn’t bark out any other insult, Ichigo sniggered at his embarrassment before he stretched and turned away. “It’s not as embarrassing as you think, kid. It’s normal to want to see your father again. And I’ve been confused for worse than a-“

“I don’t _miss_ that _asshole_.”

They were quiet for a moment.

“…I see,” Ichigo said, trying not to let his growing anger show on his gestures, in his words. He Had been hoping he was just reading too much into it, but… “In that case, I’m sorry.”

“W-what for?”

“For bringing back bad memories.”

The teen cat hissed, loud and angry and _afraid_. “Shut _up,_ what do you _know?!”_

“I don’t know anything.” Ichigo replied, calm and soothing. “I just see that I hurt you without meaning to. And I don’t like that. My whole thing is being a protector, you see.”

“Well I don’t _need_ your protection, so you can fuck right off.”

Ichigo’s tail twitched, as he thought about his next words. How to approach him in a non-confrontational way. “You’re a good fighter. Who taught you?”

“What do you care?”

Completely unsurprised, Ichigo just shrugged, and stretched his back, still not looking at the skittish teen. He kept his movements slow, his words soft. “Just curious, you don’t have to answer.”

He was rewarded an entire minute later, with a small voice and hesitant words. “…My Shishou did.”

“Yeah? He did a good job.”

“…He’s the best.”

Ichigo smiled to himself as the conversation slowly moved back on track, as the teen at his back regained his strength and his enthusiasm. “Is that so? Would you like to spar? I used to do karate so long ago, might be rusty. But surely I could kick your ass.”

“As if!” Kyou said, a new glint entering his eyes as he bristled. It was rather cute how even with his hair on end, he was still smaller than Ichigo. “Shishou is the best teacher every, you’ll be the one crying if we fight!”

“Then come on,” Ichigo smirked, “let’s get you back so we can spar.”

Kyou sauntered past him, tail and nose pointed towards the sky in haughty disregard. He did not say anything or otherwise acknowledge Ichigo, but the tension between them was mostly gone.

Ichigo huffed under his breath as he followed the teen, idly wondering if it would be okay to help him.

If Ichigo could become a source of strength instead of a reminder of bad memories.

* * *

When Sohma Shigure returned from his coffee date with Ayame, he had heard a commotion out back. Hearing the happy shouts of his kids, he had decided to change into something more comfortable before checking up on them.

However, as soon as he entered his room and saw the opened cabinets, and the clothes on the floor, he decided to go investigate first.

“Kyou-kun! Yuki-kun!” He sing-songed as he threw the bamboo screen open, “are you guys angry at me… for something…?”

His voice dwindled to surprised silence as he realized that while yes, Kyou and Yuki were indeed brawling as always, this time it was both of them against a strange man.

A man with outrageously orange hair like Kyou, with enough muscles to draw Shigure’s attention, and the age to not be considered a pervert for accidentally checking him out.

The man was nimble and fast as he evaded and redirected the teens’ every attempt. Ducking and dodging, and taunting them, goading them to come at him again and again. Smiling cheekily as they grew more and more frustrated at never landing a hit.

But Shigure soon enough realized.

That this stranger was not only in his home, playing with his kids.

He was wearing Shigure’s clothes.

And looking hella hot in them.

“Ah! Shigure-san! You’re back!” Tohru, bless her naïve little heart, did not notice how Shigure was gawking as she approached. By the time she looked at him again, he had composed his expression. “How did your date go?”

“Ah, Tohru-kun, I would love to tell you all the sordid details, but not only are you too young but… I would like to know what’s going on first?”

“Oh! This is Ichigo-san! We bumped into him this morning, and confused him for a Sohma.” She continued to say, turning to smile at the brawling men and missing Shigure’s alarmed expression. “Kyou-kun asked him for a fight, and they’ve been going at it for hours!”

“…You shouldn’t bring strangers to the house even if they claim to be Sohmas, y’know?” Shigure mumbled in dismay, as he did not recognize the stranger in his house. “Also, Tohru-kun, pray tell, why is he wearing my clothes?”

There was no way he could have ever guessed the reasons himself.

“Oh, we thought he was part of the Zodiac because he’s a cat shapeshifter! I also thought he was Kyou’s father, but they’re not related… Oh, and because we scared him, Ichigo-san lost his clothes so we had to lend him yours. Ah! I hope you don’t mind?! He said he would return them once he got them washed and-!”

Shigure had long since stopped listening.

But it wasn’t his fault exactly.

“Tohru-kun,” he said weakly, interrupting her words. “What do you mean by shapeshifter exactly?”

“Oh! You must be Shigure,” The stranger interrupted their conversation upon noticing him. He was covered in sweat, Shigure’s clothes sticking to him just perfectly. He also had a foot on Kyou’s back as he laid on the ground, and he held up Yuki, upside down, by the ankle like some bizarre fishing trophy. “Hey man, sorry about the clothes, will get them cleaned up before I return them.”

Sohma Shigure, master manipulator, accomplished writer and sweet talker could only stare at him and say, “excuse me, _what the fuck.”_

* * *

As it turned out, being a shapeshifter ended up not being Shigure’s main problem.

The obnoxious man had stopped his sparring session to greet him properly, and sent the boys off to get a shower while the rest headed over to the living room to have a polite discussion.

But Ichigo had frozen in the doorway upon remembering the broken table, and not expecting this, Shigure had bumped straight into him.

Which, wouldn’t have been a problem if this stranger hadn’t been this hot.

Clearly already knowing the rules that governed the Sohma’s Curse, and sadly in possession of a brain, Ichigo hadn’t stopped smirking at his dog form, even as he sent Tohru away to get the tea.

“It’s not transforming when hugged by the opposite gender, is it?” Ichigo said, as soon as they both sat down at the new low table Kyou had fetched for them after his shower. “It’s when hugged by the gender you’re attracted to.”

Shigure rolled his eyes. “You don’t really need me to answer, now do you?”

“Guess not. I just thought the first version made no sense. Who even determines what “opposite gender” even means?” Ichigo rolled his eyes, as if a curse made by a wronged god needed to make sense. “Anyway, sorry for just barging in, I guess? I mean, it was your kids that invited me in, and I was a little worried over drawing more attention to me, but still. Should have probably left after explaining things.”

“…Why were you sparring with Kyou and Yuki?”

“I may have gotten confused with Kyou’s dad. Then he told me he trained, made Yuki join when he laughed at Kyou. Then the both of them teamed up to try and defeat me.”

Shigure nodded blankly as he tried to process everything. Then he remembered Ichigo’s clothes were a little too big on him, sliding off his shoulder as sweat no longer glued them to his muscles. “What happened to your clothes?”

“Lost them, when they surprised me. I’m not from here, but I assumed some abandoned alley wouldn’t be a bad place to transform. Hadn’t accounted for nosy teens.”

“Abandoned alley? What where you even doing?”

At this, Ichigo looked away, rubbing the back of his head in apparent embarrassment. “A friend of mine is staying here for the night. He just returned from overseas and I wanted to prank him.”

“…By turning into a cat.”

“Hey, I didn’t say it was a good prank.”

“I’m assuming your friend knows of your skills?”

“I mean I have been trying to master shapeshifting for the longest of times. Even took some vocal coaching to _be able to sound like this.”_ Ichigo put a hand against his throat as his voice rose in pitch until he sounded like either a very effeminate man, or a rather rough sounding woman. “Helps not to give away my identity so fast.”

“…Why would you want to turn into an animal in the first place?”

Ichigo shot him a curious glance. “Because it’s useful for recon. And pranks. And because it helped me keep my…my powers in check. Also, you transform into a dog, you should know how freeing it is, to be an animal.”

Shigure didn’t answer immediately. He just stared back at him, hearing echoes of Akito’s screaming, screeching, crying.

“Yeah,” he mumbled, looking down at his paws. “Freeing.”

Ichigo was going to ask something else, but fortunately the time was up, and Shigure transformed into his very naked human form.

Ichigo averted his eyes, stammering and red in the face, and that worked as the perfect segue into a better conversation.

Namely, finding out if he was single, and ready to mingle.

* * *

Ichigo left not soon after, with Shigure’s clothes on his back, and their numbers on his phone. He’d mostly meant for Kyou to be able to message him whenever he wanted, but he had always been a softie for kids and they all seemed like nice enough people.

Shigure…

Well, Ichigo still wasn’t sure what to make of this man, if they would be compatible or not, but there was only one way to find out.

And he still had the excuse of returning his clothes, so at least they would see each other one more time.

(They would see each other much more than that. Between getting called by Kyou to be used as a decoy for an over-enthusiastic Boar Girl, meeting Tohru’s eccentric friends, and being asked to deal with what ended up being a very obnoxious older brother instead of a stalker, Ichigo ended up hopping onto the train more times than he ever thought he would. He didn’t mind, however. Especially since those ended up becoming just more excuses to visit his new boyfriend.)

(Yeah, as it turned out, being mistaken for a dad ended up earning himself his first boyfriend in nearly a decade, and a couple _dozen_ teenage kids to dote on. Maybe his luck wasn’t so terrible after all.)

**Author's Note:**

> Mau, hope you enjoyed it!  
> I know not a lot of them got to see his cat transformation;; Things derrailed a little?
> 
> Stay safe and wash your hands, everyone! Don't forget to drop a comment!


End file.
